50 Fun Facts About Nomadland

Who wrote, produced, edited and directed Nomadland?

She became the second woman ever to win the Best Director Oscar.

Who plays Fern?

It was her third Best Actress Oscar, after Fargo and Three Billboards.

The film is based on a nonfiction book by whom?

It grew out of her Harper's cover story on older Americans doing seasonal work from vans.

In which Nevada town does Fern lose her job when the plant closes?

The real company town was shut by US Gypsum in 2011 and its ZIP code discontinued.

What did the plant in Fern's company town produce?

The town was a US Gypsum company town for 63 years.

Where does Fern take a seasonal job through the winter?

The book's title for the programme is CamperForce.

Who organises the desert rendezvous in Arizona that Fern attends?

The real Wells plays himself and runs the gathering the scenes are based on.

Which nomad chastises Fern for being unprepared when her tyre blows?

They become friends, and Swankie later shares her cancer diagnosis.

What does the nomad with a cancer diagnosis plan to do rather than waste away in a hospital?

The nomads later toss stones into a campfire in tribute to her.

At which national park does Fern work as a camp host?

It's the Cedar Pass Campgrounds in South Dakota.

Which South Dakota tourist stop do Fern and Dave take restaurant jobs at?

Dave's son turns up there to say his wife is pregnant.

What illness lands Dave in hospital?

Fern visits him after his emergency surgery.

Who plays Dave?

He was one of the few professional actors in the cast.

Where does Fern go to borrow money when her van breaks down?

Her sister asks why she stayed in the company town after her husband died, but calls her brave.

Where does Dave settle with his son's family?

He offers Fern a guest house; she leaves after a few days.

What does Bob tell Fern about goodbyes in the nomad community?

He also shares the story of his son's suicide.

What does Fern do on her final visit to the abandoned town?

Then she returns to the road.

Which earlier Zhao film convinced McDormand to approach her?

McDormand saw it at a 2017 festival and met Zhao at the 2018 Independent Spirit Awards.

With whom did McDormand option the book's film rights in 2017?

The two are credited among the film's five producers.

How long was the shoot?

Zhao split her time with pre-production on a Marvel film.

How did McDormand, Zhao and the crew live during production?

Many real nomads appear as fictionalised versions of themselves.

Which Marvel film was Zhao preparing while making Nomadland?

Marvel hired her in September 2018.

Which festival gave the film its premiere and Golden Lion?

It screened at a second festival the same day and won the top prize there too.

Nomadland was the first film to win the top prize at both the Golden Lion festival and which other?

Toronto's People's Choice Award has a strong record of predicting Best Picture.

On which streaming service was the film released day-and-date with theatres in the US?

It hit Disney+ abroad later in April 2021.

Which studio distributed the film?

It was Searchlight's first Best Picture winner under Disney ownership.

Why was the film pulled from Chinese cinemas?

The Oscars themselves were censored in Chinese media as a result.

Whose music was used as the film's score?

His music also scored The Father the same year.

What was the film's approximate budget?

It grossed $39 million worldwide, mostly outside North America.

How many Oscars did Nomadland win?

Picture, Director and Actress, from six nominations.

Zhao was the second woman to win Best Director; who was the first?

Bigelow won for The Hurt Locker eleven years earlier.

McDormand became the first person to win Oscars in which two capacities for the same film?

She was also the first woman to be nominated for both acting and producing the same film.

Where was the 2021 Oscar ceremony held because of the pandemic?

It drew 10.4 million viewers, the fewest on record.

Why did McDormand howl while accepting Best Picture?

Many in the audience were baffled until she explained.

Which film led that year's nominations with ten?

It won two, for cinematography and production design.

How many consecutive years had the ceremony gone without an official host by 2021?

Steven Soderbergh was one of the producers of the telecast.

How many Best Actress Oscars did McDormand have after this win?

Only Katharine Hepburn, with four, has more.

Where was Zhao born?

Her father was an executive at the state steel company Shougang.

The real Bob Wells founded which annual gathering?

It's held in Quartzsite, Arizona, where the film's rendezvous scenes take place.

Which critic dismissed the film as '108 minutes of poverty tourism'?

WBUR's Sean Burns called it 'The Grapes of Wrath without the wrath'.

In which year does the film open, with the closure of the plant where Fern worked?

The real town's ZIP code was retired after US Gypsum shut the plant, and Fern sells most of her belongings to buy a van.

Which friend and co-worker first invites Fern to the desert rendezvous in Arizona?

Like Swankie and Bob Wells, she is a real-life nomad playing a fictionalised version of herself.

In which Golden Globe category did Nomadland win Best Motion Picture?

Zhao also took Best Director there, becoming the second woman and first East Asian woman to do so.

How do the nomads pay tribute to their late friend at the gathering?

Fern then opens up to Bob about her late husband, and he shares the story of his own son's death.

Roughly how much did Nomadland gross worldwide?

Only $3.7 million of that came from the US and Canada, where it opened day-and-date with streaming during the pandemic.

At what kind of plant does Fern take a job after Wall Drug, just before her van breaks down?

She cannot afford the repairs, forcing the visit to her sister that she had long avoided.

What personal loss does the rendezvous organiser share with Fern near the film's end?

The real Bob Wells, founder of Cheap RV Living, plays himself in the scene.

On which service was the film released in Canada on April 9, 2021?

Most other countries got it there three weeks later, while a planned Chinese theatrical release never happened.

Where did Nomadland rank on Time Out's 2022 list of the 100 best films of the 21st century?

The list praised it for stitching together realism, transcendence and a lightly worn radicalism.

Zhao's remarks that got the film pulled in China came from a 2013 interview with which magazine?

Chinese media had initially celebrated her success, then censored the Oscars broadcast and mentions of the film on social media.